Third Eye Observations

On Blogging : Worth the bother ?

Why do I do this ?
What is that observation that I think I can articulate better than anyone else can?
Why should I get the podium and the gift of your attention today ?
What makes my decade in the corporate world more special that most ?
Was I a smarter observer ? Or just another pair of glazed eyes ?
Or is my only license to write the fact that I can and did.
If I am not fabulously successful what credibility do I have to pontificate ?
Or is that the first step to earning credibility ?
Why do I blog ? to satisfy the ego or a viable external community need ?
Have I earned the right from tasting extraordinary success ?
Or even better : failing spectacularly chasing a worthy goal ?
If this age of a billions of websites, why should I be heard above the din ?
Why do I need to write ? Versus just joining the crowd passively ?
What niche can I satisfy that has not been richly pandered to before ?
How do I transcend the double digit views I get on most good days into the elusive seven?
Will I ever be as erudite as Hitchens or Godin in being able to make a point with clever style.
What if all this is, as Maximus bellowed to his Roman troops, just another echo in eternity ?
What new angle can I dish out that you haven’t heard before and internalized ?
Am I like the majority, interesting to and interested only by the Self ?
What if I can’t elevate my game and end up adding to the noise instead of the signal ?

Is this my creative conscious speaking out here or is this writers block pretending to be my creative conscious ?

On Corporate Innovation

I was at a my company offsite recently and we were deep into discussing why it was imperative that we move away from offering just wage arbitrage as a USP and embrace ‘Innovation’ more aggressively. The audience was reminded that our competition was matching us on the price front and so ‘innovation’ was the ticket out of that race to the bottom.

That is when the epiphany hit me : Innovation is not and should never be ‘a Goal’. It is a FALLOUT of a certain culture.

Culture is a ‘photo mosaic’. Remember those pictures you see where there is a person’s face and it is made up of thousand of smaller photos arranged to arrive at the face of the person. Like this here. Culture is like that. Thousand of small actions and people interactions a day inside the office contributes to creating an org mosaic and some scream innovation friendliness and some just don’t. Now innovation usually results from a ‘fast prototype’ culture and the first 96 prototypes are mostly crud. The 97th usually is ‘Go To Market’ capable.

Robert Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, who I suggest you read, says “”One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is “what happens after people make a mistake?” ……Failure sucks but instructs. In fact, there is no learning without failure — and this includes failing at dangerous things like surgery and flying planes. Discovery of the moves that work well is always accompanied by discovery of moves that don’t. This is why failure is so endemic to innovation. ”

So ask yourself Mr.CXO if you are willing to climb the ‘failure friendly environment’ tree to get to the eventual fruits of innovation. For I have sadly seen A FAILURE of concept,idea,beta finish peoples careers here in Indian orgs.

John C. Maxwell in his book The 360° Leader tells us that we must model the behavior that we desire in our organizations. Consistency is key to establishing the culture you desire in your organization.

Here are several things to think about when establishing a culture in your organization.

– Your behavior determines your culture
– Your attitude determines the atmosphere
– Your values determine the decisions
– Your investment determines the return
– Your character determines the trust
– Your work ethic determines the productivity
– Your growth determines the potential

Innovation expert Scott Berkun got it bang on when he said “….Innovation is all about rapid iteration and prototyping. Which is really about rapid failure. Trying something and failing and taking a step back and trying again and learning how you are going to succeed. The beauty of the startup environment is we have nothing to lose. If you are starting from scratch you are always failing until you succeed. But in a large company, failure is not tolerated.”

Think about it this way. If you want an apple, you plant an apple tree and look after it. Do it well and you WILL get apple by DEFAULT. Without the tree, No apples. No amount of incentivization though cash bribes will truly get your org to become an innovation hub. Cash is like coke. The drug. Instant high. But prolonged use of it backfires very badly.

INNOVATION will naturally result when you get the culture right. Getting the culture right is TOUGH. Very Tough. And that is why Innovation is a Unicorn we are all chasing to the ends of the org in vain. Spend time creating the right forest with the right ambiance and many unicorns will soon call it home.

The damage bad managers can inflict is astounding

There is only so much good one noble person can do but there is no such upper limit to damage a bad actor can inflict. A good leader-manager can only make so much of a difference. But a bad one can just burn it all down.

Entrepreneurs and CXOs need to be every vigilant of letting in that one bad leader into their jungle. What’s worse, if you call one wolf, you invite the pack. Guy Kawasaki called it the ‘Bozo Explosion‘.

A bad manager can kill morale, weaken the systems, bypass the controls and wreck it all and frighteningly fast at that. What 10 good managers can do in 10 good years, 1 bad manager can undo in 1 (*citation needed). And it’ll usually take 10 NEW good managers 10 years of painful reconstruction to UNDO that bad guy’s damage. Good leaders can make a small positive difference but bad leaders can make a huge negative difference – because they drive good people out. Hiring (manning the gates) is THE most important job any manager has. Don’t simply delegate to HR and leave them to it. Do not consider it a soft job easily delegated. It’s the OPPOSITE.

This perspective is inspired by a masterpiece of an academic article called “Bad is Stronger Than Good,” which was published in 2001 by Roy F. Baumeister and three other colleagues. If you want to really dig in, I invite you to download Bad is Stronger Than Good.. it is very detailed but readable.

Essentially, the authors meticulously go through topic after topic — personal relationships, learning, memory, self-image, and numerous others — and show that bad packs a much stronger impact than good. They review a couple hundred diverse studies to make this point, and as they say at the end, the consistency of their findings about the disproportionate impact of bad things (compared to the power of good things)– like negative emotions, hostility, abuse, dysfunctional acts, destructive relationships, serious injuries and accidents, incompetence, and on and on — is depressingly consistent across study after after study.

This post is ‘dedicated’ to the all the bad bosses out there.

Kudos to your power.

Evolution of the Experience

Earlier in India, universally, customer service was shoddy. Out of 100 companies that served you, you could bet 90 just didn’t give a damn. Esp if it was not for a luxury product. Like just another random restaurant. a railway ticket. the phone company.

Today, it’s 50-50. And I find this exciting. We have come a long way. I twittered that the landing into Delhi was bumpy and someone in Spicejet read the tweet and called me and investigated the episode and gave me an update. HDFC’s customer email address is managed by a smart caring team. Flipkart blows me away with how good and fast they are. Justdial, Meeru and EasyCabs customer service response time probably puts Amazon,Zappos and Apple to shame.

Airtel is a 50-50. ICICI is 50-50. Sometimes you meet a great rep, sometime a buffoon.

Air India, Indian Railways and The Govt are just proof there is nothing than cannot be bad and then made worse .

This is an exciting time to be involved. You have a chance to make a huge difference by helping the good get better because no company is more sincere than the one that is good and trying to improve. Really trying. They need the help and you as the customer owe it to them and the guy behind you in line (your neighbor, your brother in law, your kid, your mom) to help the enterprise go from good to AWESOME.

So tweet about what they else could be doing, email the customer email ID, blog about the experience, call the helpline. Don’t be malicious about a bad episode. Be constructive. And rave when they get it right.

Just don’t think your responsibility and the relationship is over when you are done making the payment.

Defeating Indian Stretchable Time

There are two immutable rules when it comes to us Indians. More immutable than the presence of gravity or absence of privacy here.

1# Indians can NEVER turn up anywhere punctually. (except when they are delivering bad news. Then they are Early). The odds of an Indian showing up at the allotted hour are the same as an elephant shitting dung encrusted with diamonds and almonds right now behind you. Did you turn ?….. Exactly.

2# They just absolutely hate parting with their money. Like Scots. (A Scotsman took a girl for a ride in a taxi. She was so beautiful he could hardly keep his eye on the meter)

I am late to all the engagements I enthusiastically commit to. I have the same sense of urgency to turn up on time as does a cow to move off the road when honked at.

Of course, that above is a harmless,almost lovable vice of mine.

The criminal offense is when people are late and I AM MADE TO WAIT FOR THEM.

DEATH TO THOSE INFIDELS!!

I suffered it recently and while waiting for the bastard, it hit me : IST can be beaten if the love of lateness is lined up against the Indian love of keeping wallet firmly in pocket [which is the only ‘rocket’ they have below the waist. Although every dude lies otherwise. Ask the ladies for more on THAT scam]

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to (((((drum roll)))))

PINT : Punishment for Indian National Trait

Now pay attention to how it works.

You are waiting for Indian friend at pub.
You guys agreed to 8 PM.
You confirmed it at 7:30 PM as you were heading to the pub from your office.
Now it is 8:25 PM
Your friend is still, as per his sms’ ‘….On his way, almost there’
He turns up at 8:40 PM

40 fu*king minutes late.

Now you guys start drinking, exercising the only skill both of you picked up in college.
You order the same number of the same drinks.
At 11 PM you guys wind up.
The bill is RS.3000

At this sobering moment, PINT kicks in.

Since he was 40 minutes LATE, the first 40% of the bill has to be paid off by the guy who was late = the Indian(s) will FIRST pay off 1200 rupees. The Balance 1800 rupees of the bill (3000-1200=1800) will be then split as it should be in this case : half and half. 1800/2 = 900 rupees each.

Next day morning, sober and looking for the missing 1200 in his wallet, your Indian friend will be nursing minor bruise from hangover and major bruise from the PINT fine. He will promise never to pay again but as his gene is Indian, that has as much sanctity as you promising yourself this smoke is your last cigarette.

Now enjoy a lifelong PROFITABLE relationship with Indians.

Added Bonus : You are in new territory there as that phenomenon has never before been recorded i.e PROFITABLE relationship with an Indian.

You are welcome friend.

Punishment for Indian National Trait.

About time.

PS: as this post is blatantly racist against Indians and horribly judgmental, I need to clarify. I am an Indian and I am often judged as mental.

The BEST new life scorecard

In school everything we studied and examined for was marked out of 100. Every pointless subject i never used in real life. it was marked in a 0 to 100 scale. So many capable millions of people feeling they didn’t have the chops to make it in life because of some failure in a room grading the papers . So many years wasted in such a pointless exercise. So many kids going through so many scars ………..for what ?

well. f*ck that.

Now we are going to have another grading system. This is all you will need. So stop feeling bad your batch mate earns more than you or that your neighbor drives a better car.

I call it the BEST rating system. For BEATS EVERYTHING SCORING TECHNIQUE.

take your age.

total the number of foreign countries you have travelled to.

calculate the number of years you can live if you decided to walk off from whatever job you were doing and NEVER worked for a salary again.ever.

Multiply 2 and 3.

Minus your age from whatever you get when you multiplied 2 and 3.

Try hard to get THAT number to 100.

there is no upper limit. so try for 1000.

At the VERY least try not to go negative on the BEST score.

That’s about it.

To hell with all other pointless scorecards.

India Files : ‘Chalta Hai’ Explained

Living as I have in India for the past 3 decades, I’ve noticed what a stigma failure is in an Asian culture.

I suspect one of the reasons America so comprehensively dominates the cultural, economic and military space (piddly recession be damned) is it’s healthy relationship with failure.

When a person or a corporation there declares bankruptcy, the social stigma associated with the events is far less severe or long lasting. Unlike here, where the sting and stigma hangs over the person for years, much like the permanent smog over Delhi.

Now I am not going to waste this post and your precious time, dear reader, lecturing against our failed attitude to failure.

I am here to warn you on a far more insidious enemy, who unlike failure, blends and lives among us undermining everything we do less perceptibly but far more viciously.

We all know this invisible foe as ‘Mediocrity‘ but Indians have a better term for it: the Chalta Hai attitude.

What is it ?….It’s the opposite of the Teutonic eye for perfection, the enemy of a Job Well Done, the sperm that births the Kalmadis and the urban civic nightmares that is our mega-cities. To notice it just lift your head and look at the nearest electrical pole or look down to the roads you are trundling on. Chalta Hai is the blasé shrug of indifference towards the half done and not-fully-done jobs. Painfully visible in poorly drafted emails, presentations, book reports, road construction, wiring or design.

The opposite of Perfection and Success is not failure. It’s Chalta Hai (or ‘Solpa adjust maadi’ for the pedantic southies).

From the Indian Express : “Some years ago, when the Duke of Edinburgh encountered a loose wire hanging off one of the walls of Buckingham Palace, he inquired if an Indian had done the electrical job. His innocent enquiry caused a stir among Indians in Britain, many of whom were not even electricians. The Duke’s words had hurt. Not because they were slanderous, but because they succinctly summed up the truth about a cultural trait. Half-baked, Incomplete, Inconvenience Regretted — are phrases that have sunk into Indian consciousness.”

Both on the Operational floor and in the classrooms we need to start a strong healthy disdain for mediocre solutions, designs, services and products. The ITES space revels in its prolonged love affair with Deming, Six Sigma and LEAN but I suspect the peddlers of these magical potions think it has no business outside of the operational floor.

India is now the world’s richest poor country (or poorest rich country) and if we aspire to jump into the ACTUAL big leagues, as we should, Chalta Hai has to go. The market doesn’t reward intent, it rewards outcomes.

Say NO to the incomplete, inelegant, shoddy solution both as a peddler of it and as a buyer of it. The former is tougher.

When Math is used to mislead

Oh joy.

Another ‘About‘ section on another utterly mediocre company’s website boastfully reassuring me, it’s hopefully gullible reader, there is a ‘combined‘ work experience on 547 years in the senior management team.

Really ? What are you ? A Borg Cube ?

I have been on conference calls with 10 senior veteran participants who between them have had 150+ years of work experience but where the said meeting failed to achieve a single item of value that the shareholders would have said was worth the enormous cost of that meeting to their company. And it was a toy problem 2 young managers could have sorted in 10 minutes.

And if that ‘cumulative work experience ‘ angle is correct, ideally should we not have zero plant closures, chapter 11s or redundancies ? For there should be NO challenge that 100+ years of work experience cannot surmount.The data tells a different story though. Look at what happened to Detroit and the Big 3 and Wall Street in 2008. Look at the 1999 tech bubble.

I am confident that in the MANAGEMENT space, cumulative work experience is a thoroughly useless metric. It may hold some charge in serious professions like medicine or in a research lab but in the corporate boardroom it’s as helpful as the free doughnuts on the table.

While I am generally against a ‘Hero as savior!!’ culture that Bollywood and Hollywood love to whip out as a the perennial solution to every problem, I am still convinced one man with a plan and smarts beats 20 with ‘ 200 cumulative years of work experience’ trying to solve a nagging operational puzzle.

After all isn’t a Camel just a Horse designed by a committee ? …..which I bet boasted on its website about the 600 years of cumulative experience it had riding horses.

Hacking the Service Code

‘Smart’ pundits who love climaxing to epigrams sometimes dub China the ‘world’s factory’ and India, it’s ‘back office’. Although I would contend this is an irritating reductionism masking an aversion to in-depth research or independent thinking or worse, both, the economic nom de plumes can be taken as a go-point for some mental base jumping.

I am going to focus on India’s moniker here: Back Office to the world.

If we remotely aspire to get anywhere close to being dubbed ‘Good’ in that busy food court, we who toil in its white collar kitchens have to dish out two things well :
1# Consistently good customer service (to both customers calling from Boston and Bombay)
2# In an accent and tone that is readily understandable to the customer who is calling in.

On #1 I have now started wondering what is the process that leads someone to be good or great at customer service ? …….Is it having a role model in the workplace who you can model after and leech knowledge off ? Is it being exposes to said good service that allows you to understand it and dish it out when it is your turn to carry the water ? Is it exposure from international first world travel and targeted reading ? Or is it just smarts melded to a thin rule book dangled over some delicious promissory carrots to the good and the great in the area ?

I am slowly becoming skeptical about accepted wisdom that it can be taught in a 50 by 25 beige walled classroom with a 46MB, 112 slides power point deck by a 28 year old girl of dubious credentials and limited real world curiosity. But then Southwest, Zappos and Apple are doing something right that gets them to the top of that enviable Everest. Even if it is simply hiring the right people who are plug and play in that area.

If India wants to dethrone the reigning champions of the CS game (U.S.A) we have to hack this code and pirate the plagiarized innards of the process to the capable and the interested.

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this: